DOCSLIB.ORG

Destroy the Oceans – GRAMS Lab – Umich 2014 Notes

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Destroy the Oceans – GRAMS Lab – Umich 2014 Notes Destroy the Oceans – GRAMS Lab – UMich 2014 Notes Questions? Caitlin Walrath ([email protected]) Vivienne Pismarov ([email protected]) Erin Rawls ([email protected]) Jacob Goldschlag ([email protected]) Jeremy Hoffen ([email protected]) ***Biodiversity Good / Bad*** Impact Defense Squo Solves No impact to biodiversity – status quo solves PR Web, 10 - leader in online news distribution and online publicity that allows organizations of all sizes to distribute their news on the Internet (“Latin America and Caribbean are 'Biodiversity Superpower', says UNDP Report”, 12-2-10, http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/12/prweb8016532.htm)//KG The policies recommended in our report have the potential to transform traditional models of development—raising the quality of life of millions by preserving and restoring our biodiversity and eco-system services.” The report recommends that governments provide incentives, such as tax breaks, to direct public and private investments while stepping up efforts to conserve ecosystems. It also recommends raising awareness among policymakers, consumers and the rural poor, and investing to be at the forefront of biodiversity and ecosystems services-based technologies, products and markets. Countries can increase economic benefits by investing and restoring key biodiversity-related sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, forestry, water-related services, protected areas, and tourism, which are crucial for the region’s economy, according to the report. Self-Correcting Fluctuations in temperature and biodiversity are natural – they correct themselves Boulter 2 - professor of paleobiology at the Natural History Museum and the University of East London (Michael, “Extinction : evolution and the end of man,” Columbia University Press, 2002)//JGold Today, world marine life is under threat from overfishing and pollution; naive fish-farming practices have led to dramatic loss in populations. In turn there are effects on the phytoplankton which are crucial in the food chain of all these creatures. It is a curious replay of some of the changes that dominated the land and sea at the end of the Paleocene and set the scene for another 20 million years of high temperatures on our planet. Between 35 and 55 million years ago, Earth saw the peak in diversity of very many animal and plant groups on the land and in the sea. They were relatively tranquil times when the planet was largely at peace with itself, content with the steady rhythms of oscillating temperature, sea level and other environmental changes.¶ Temperatures had been rising steadily since the dinosaur extinction event 20 million years before and flora and fauna flourished to reach a peak in species number. Carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere was much higher than today, and without polar ice the sea level as well. Every few tens of thousands of years the river estuaries leading into the North Sea would flood to lay more sediment: the river Thames deposited London Clay from the west, the Seine left deposits from the south around Paris, while the Rhine formed rich sediments in Westphalia. These three ‘rivers’ were not the half- kilometre-wide trickles we know now. Man-made embankments give a deceptive idea of the extent of natural floodplains.¶ The rivers were vast expanses of floodplain, up to hundreds of kilometres across, comprising habitats that ranged from waterlogged marsh to quite shallow water and streaming torrents. The proportion of salt water and fresh water varied according to the different environmental pictures. One of the best permanent exposures of one kind of the resulting sediments, London Clay, is on the northern shore of the Isle of Sheppey, in Kent. On the beach at low tide you can find the fossilised remains of sharks’ teeth, tropical mangrove plants and tropical rainforest lianas.¶ The sea level started to rise and fall through these Eocene times go million years ago, and the oscillations were the first signs of a change ¶ away from the smooth environmental stability since the beginning of the Tertiary. Temperature stopped rising continuously and also began to alternate between highs and lows, rising to a maximum in Europe about 40 million years ago. The low ground between London, Paris and Bonn was at its hottest and tropical rainforest covered much of southern England, Germany and France. As the sea level rose the land bridge separating the London—Paris basin from the Rhine basin became covered with water. Then the sea level fell for another few hundred thousand years to make firm land connections. The land bridge between the British islands and the European mainland rose and fell above these waves. The phenomenon formed cycles that were repeated several times through the 10 million years of tropical heat. Then the climatic oscillations show that it slowly began to get colder.¶ These ideas of climate change in the Eocene of north-west Europe were confirmed in the 1980s by the geological exploration funded by the North Sea oil industry. Thousands of boreholes cored from shallow-water rigs through the clay offshore show cyclical changes in the diversity and concentration of many different kinds of biology. Mollusc and brachiopod shells varied, plankton gave reliable correlations to the same changes, as did pollen from the plants on nearby landmasses. The times of smoothly increasing temperatures were over. At the end of the Eocene, 35- million years ago, cycles of steady global cooling began to show up in the monitoring of climate change. Ocean Biodiversity Increasing Ocean biodiversity is getting better Panetta, 13 – former US secretary of state (Leon, “Panetta: Don't take oceans for granted,” http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/17/opinion/panetta-oceans/index.html)//vivienne Our oceans are a tremendous economic engine, providing jobs for millions of Americans, directly and indirectly, and a source of food and recreation for countless more. Yet, for much of U.S. history, the health of America's oceans has been taken for granted, assuming its bounty was limitless and capacity to absorb waste without end. This is far from the truth. The situation the commission found in 2001 was grim. Many of our nation's commercial fisheries were being depleted and fishing families and communities were hurting. More than 60% of our coastal rivers and bays were degraded by nutrient runoff from farmland, cities and suburbs. Government policies and practices, a patchwork of inadequate laws and regulations at various levels, in many cases made matters worse. Our nation needed a wake-up call. The situation, on many fronts, is dramatically different today because of a combination of leadership initiatives from the White House and old-fashioned bipartisan cooperation on Capitol Hill. Perhaps the most dramatic example can be seen in the effort to end overfishing in U.S. waters. In 2005, President George W. Bush worked with congressional leaders to strengthen America's primary fisheries management law, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. This included establishment of science-based catch limits to guide decisions in rebuilding depleted species. These reforms enacted by Congress are paying off. In fact, an important milestone was reached last June when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced it had established annual, science-based catch limits for all U.S. ocean fish populations. We now have some of the best managed fisheries in the world. Progress also is evident in improved overall ocean governance and better safeguards for ecologically sensitive marine areas. In 2010, President Barack Obama issued a historic executive order establishing a national ocean policy directing federal agencies to coordinate efforts to protect and restore the health of marine ecosystems. President George W. Bush set aside new U.S. marine sanctuary areas from 2006 through 2009. Today, the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, one of several marine monuments created by the Bush administration, provides protection for some of the most biologically diverse waters in the Pacific. Marine Resiliency Diversity and resilience refute an all out collapse of marine biodiversity JCU 11 – (“Climate will damage reefs at different rates”, July 22, James Cook University, http://www-public.Jcu.edu.au/news/JCU_083861)//JFHH Climate change and acidifying ocean water are likely to have a highly variable impact on the world’s coral reefs in space, time and diversity, international coral scientists cautioned today. The picture that is emerging from studies of past coral extinctions and present impacts on today’s reef systems is complex and subtle and will demand much more sophisticated management to preserve reefs intact, the team of scientists reports in a paper in the international journal Science. “New research confirms that coral reefs… are indeed threatened by climate change, but that some current projections of global-scale collapse of reefs within the next few decades probably overestimate the rapidity and uniformity of the decline ,” the researchers say. “A considered view of all the most recent evidence suggests that some coral reef systems will decline more rapidly – especially those subject to other human pressures such as overfishing – while others may change in composition, but manage to persist for longer ,” says lead author Professor John Pandolfi of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and the University of Queensland. The paper, “ProJecting coral reef futures under global warming and ocean acidification” by John M. Pandolfi, Sean R. Connolly, Dustin J. Marshall and Anne L. Cohen appears in the latest issue of the journal Science. “Coral reefs occupy a small part of the world’s oceans, yet harbour a hugely disproportionate amount of its biodiversity,” the researchers say. “More than 450 million people from 109 countries live close to coral reefs, which provide important sources of ecosystem goods and services for these communities. “But reefs have suffered degradation from human over-exploitation and pollution over centuries to millennia , degradation that has accelerated in the last 50 years.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Senior Japanese Scientist Responds to Claims That New Techniques Makes Killing Whales Unnecessary
    THE INSTITUTE OF CETACEAN RESEARCH TOYOMI SHINKO BLDG. 4-5 TOYOMI-CHO CHUO-KU TOKYO 104-0055 JAPAN PHONE: +81-3-3536-6521 FAX: +81-3-3536-6522 www.whalesci.org www.icrwhale.org February 8, 2002 PRESS RELEASE Senior Japanese scientist responds to claims that new techniques makes killing whales unnecessary Dr. Seiji Ohsumi, Director General of Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research today accused Australian scientists of misrepresenting their research in order to make a political statement against whaling. Dr. Ohsumi said “DNA analysis of whale feces may provide information on what an individual whale has eaten, however, it is unrealistic to collect whale feces which remain liquid in the water, therefore the technique will not provide any scientific data on how much, where, when, and how whales eat. These are essential information for the analysis of marine ecosystem and the competition between whales and fisheries.” Dr. Ohsumi explained that the primary objective of Japan’s whale research programs is the development of ecosystem models that will improve the basis for the management of all marine resources. “Ecosystem models require data that can only be obtained from direct examination of whale stomach contents. DNA analysis does not provide a basis to calculate total volumes of prey consumed by whales or the relative importance of different prey species as components of the diet. The Australian approach does not provide statistically reliable data because whale feces can be obtained only by chance”, he said. Dr. Ohsumi said “Australian scientists have misrepresented the usefulness of their research in order to make a political statement against whaling.
    [Show full text]
  • 2010-January-February-Enews
    Sustainable eNews Unfocused Snapshots - January-February 2010 The Australian “Whale Research” Project In This Issue Editorial by Dr Janice Henke Anthropologist Unfocused Snapshots - The Australian “Whale Research” Project The much bally-hooed Australian/New Zealand whale research project is Editorial by Dr Janice Henke . .Page 1 starting now, in early 2010, in Antarctic waters. The alleged purpose of this endeavor is to “prove” that whales do not need to be killed in order to Sea Shepherds and Media be studied for conservation purposes. However, an objective look at both All Miss the Boat . .Page 2 the Australian proposed study and the more than two-decade long Tiger Tales - The Arguments For and Japanese whale research efforts in Antarctica should result in no doubts Against Farming Tigers . .Page 3 about the real intent of this latest venture. Australia and New Zealand have policies in opposition to the goals and intent of the whaling conven- The Bluefin Tuna Problem . .Page 4 tion, and these nations actually wish to find ways to change that document Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde . .Page 5 so that the International Whaling Commission would, in effect, be only an organization to oversee non-consumptive use of cetaceans Crimes for the Camera - Science for the Whales . .Page 6 The International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, or Noteworthy . .Page 7 ICRW, states that any nation intending to take whales (and it was originally assumed that this was the primary reason why any nation would become a signatory to the Convention) should undertake sci- entific research in order to discover if any proposed harvest could be done in a sustainable manner.
    [Show full text]
  • Ocean-Climate.Org
    ocean-climate.org THE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN OCEAN AND CLIMATE 8 fact sheets WITH THE HELP OF: Authors: Corinne Bussi-Copin, Xavier Capet, Bertrand Delorme, Didier Gascuel, Clara Grillet, Michel Hignette, Hélène Lecornu, Nadine Le Bris and Fabrice Messal Coordination: Nicole Aussedat, Xavier Bougeard, Corinne Bussi-Copin, Louise Ras and Julien Voyé Infographics: Xavier Bougeard and Elsa Godet Graphic design: Elsa Godet CITATION OCEAN AND CLIMATE, 2016 – Fact sheets, Second Edition. First tome here: www.ocean-climate.org With the support of: ocean-climate.org HOW DOES THE OCEAN WORK? OCEAN CIRCULATION..............................………….....………................................……………….P.4 THE OCEAN, AN INDICATOR OF CLIMATE CHANGE...............................................…………….P.6 SEA LEVEL: 300 YEARS OF OBSERVATION.....................……….................................…………….P.8 The definition of words starred with an asterisk can be found in the OCP little dictionnary section, on the last page of this document. 3 ocean-climate.org (1/2) OCEAN CIRCULATION Ocean circulation is a key regulator of climate by storing and transporting heat, carbon, nutrients and freshwater all around the world . Complex and diverse mechanisms interact with one another to produce this circulation and define its properties. Ocean circulation can be conceptually divided into two Oceanic circulation is very sensitive to the global freshwater main components: a fast and energetic wind-driven flux. This flux can be described as the difference between surface circulation, and a slow and large density-driven [Evaporation + Sea Ice Formation], which enhances circulation which dominates the deep sea. salinity, and [Precipitation + Runoff + Ice melt], which decreases salinity. Global warming will undoubtedly lead Wind-driven circulation is by far the most dynamic. to more ice melting in the poles and thus larger additions Blowing wind produces currents at the surface of the of freshwaters in the ocean at high latitudes.
    [Show full text]
  • Whale Poop Pumps up Ocean Health
    Citation: University of Vermont. (2010). Whale Poop Pumps Up Ocean Health. Retrieved from http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/569553?print%C2%ADarticle Whale Poop Pumps Up Ocean Health University of Vermont Newswise — Whale feces—should you be forced to consider such matters—probably conjure images of, well, whale-scale hunks of crud, heavy lumps that sink to the bottom. But most whales actually deposit waste that floats at the surface of the ocean, "very liquidy, a flocculent plume," says University of Vermont whale biologist, Joe Roman. And this liquid fecal matter, rich in nutrients, has a huge positive influence on the productivity of ocean fisheries, Roman and his colleague, James McCarthy from Harvard University, have discovered. Their discovery, published Oct. 11 in the journal PLoS ONE, is what Roman calls a "whale pump." Whales, they found, carry nutrients such as nitrogen from the depths where they feed back to the surface via their feces. This functions as an upward biological pump, reversing the assumption of some scientists that whales accelerate the loss of nutrients to the bottom. And this nitrogen input in the Gulf of Maine is "more than the input of all rivers combined," they write, some 23,000 metric tons each year. It is well known that microbes, plankton, and fish recycle nutrients in ocean waters, but whales and other marine mammals have largely been ignored in this cycle. Yet this study shows that whales historically played a central role in the productivity of ocean ecosystems -- and continue to do so despite diminished populations. Despite the problems of coastal eutrophication -- like the infamous "dead zones" in the Gulf of Mexico caused by excess nitrogen washing down the Mississippi River -- many places in the ocean of the Northern Hemisphere have a limited nitrogen supply.
    [Show full text]
  • FALL 2017 / VOLUME 66 / NUMBER 3 of Its Actions on Endangered Animals and What Can Be Done to Avoid Harm—An Obligation It Has Not Fulfilled
    FALL 2017 / VOLUME 66 / NUMBER 3 of its actions on endangered animals and what can be done to avoid harm—an obligation it has not fulfilled. The USFWS even warned Wildlife Services in a 2010 biological opinion that its activities put ocelots at risk. SPOTLIGHT Last October, AWI and the Center sued APHIS and the Welcome Outcome for Ocelots USFWS over this disregard for the law. After we filed our complaint, Wildlife Services and the USFWS began Ocelots may have a better chance at survival in the United consultations to examine threats to ocelots and develop States, thanks to a June 26 settlement AWI and the Center mitigation measures. for Biological Diversity reached with the US Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service The suit also asserted that recent science must be taken (APHIS) and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Per the into account to supplement the decades-old environmental settlement, APHIS and the USFWS have finally agreed analyses of Wildlife Services’ wildlife-killing program in to examine the threat posed by APHIS’ Wildlife Services Arizona. Under the settlement, the USFWS will incorporate program to endangered ocelots in Arizona and Texas. up-to-date scientific information in its final environmental assessment, to be released by year’s end. Wildlife Services kills tens of thousands of animals in those two states every year using traps, snares, and poisons. The This welcome development may not, of course, induce actual “service” this program provides to society is dubious Wildlife Services to see the light and clean up its bloody act.
    [Show full text]
  • For Want of Wonder
    Zeteo: The Journal of Interdisciplinary Writing For Want of Wonder By Jeffrey M. Barnes A review of Floating Gold: A Natural (& Unnatural) History of Ambergris, by Christopher Kemp (The University of Chicago Press, 2012) Jeffrey M. Barnes is a lawyer, a doctoral student of comparative literature and an adjunct assistant professor of classical mythology at Hunter College—with an interest in the history of perfume. [One] “continually finds [one]self shimmering between wondering at (the marvels of nature) and wondering whether (any of this could possibly be true). And it’s that very shimmer, the capacity for such delicious confusion . that may constitute the most blessedly wonderful thing about being human.” o wrote Lawrence Wechsler in his deliciously wonderful book Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of S Wonders about David Wilson’s phantasmagorical Museum of Jurassic Technology in L.A. The same thing might be written of Christopher Kemp’s Floating Gold: A Natural (& Unnatural) History of Ambergris published in May by the University of Chicago Press. In fact, it is the very “shimmer” that Wechsler identifies in the oscillation between our capacity to wonder at and our capacity to wonder whether that Kemp captures so engagingly in the “Natural (& Unnatural)” aspects of his book. Throughout this short history as well as the long course of human history from at least 700 A.D. to the present, ambergris (the word is mistakenly based on the French for gray amber) has been a substance invested with the kind of myth and mystery usually reserved for the objects of quest tales. Not unlike Melville’s Moby Dick, which actually devotes two chapters it, Floating Gold charts an alternating narrative course between the molecular biologist-author’s quest for knowledge of a general, scientific and historical nature and his personal quest to see, smell and possess the rare and elusive stuff.
    [Show full text]
  • The Fecal Iron Pump: Global Impact of Animals on the Iron Stoichiometry of Marine Sinking Particles
    Limnol. Oceanogr. 66, 2021, 201–213 © 2020 The Authors. Limnology and Oceanography published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography. doi: 10.1002/lno.11597 The fecal iron pump: Global impact of animals on the iron stoichiometry of marine sinking particles Priscilla K. Le Mézo ,1,2* Eric D. Galbraith1,3,4 1Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA), Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB), Barcelona, Spain 2Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (LMD) / Institut Pierre Simon Laplace, CNRS, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Université PSL, Ecole Polytechnique, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France 3Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain 4Earth and Planetary Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada Abstract The impact of marine animals on the iron (Fe) cycle has mostly been considered in terms of their role in sup- plying dissolved Fe to phytoplankton at the ocean surface. However, little attention has been paid to how the transformation of ingested food into fecal matter by animals alters the relative Fe-richness of particles, which could have consequences for Fe cycling in the water column and for the food quality of suspended and sinking particles. Here, we compile observations to show that the Fe to carbon (C) ratio (Fe:C) of fecal pellets of various marine animals is consistently enriched compared to their food, often by more than an order of magnitude. We explain this consistent enrichment by the low assimilation rates that have been measured for Fe in animals, together with the respiratory conversion of dietary organic C to excreted dissolved inorganic C.
    [Show full text]
  • Distinguishing the Impacts of Inadequate Prey and Vessel Traffic on an Endangered Killer Whale Orcinus Orca! Population
    OPENQ ACCESS Freely available online ~ PLOS one Distinguishing the Impacts of Inadequate Prey and Vessel Traffic on an Endangered Killer Whale Orcinus orca! Population KatherineL. Ayres"", RebeccaK. Booth",Jennifer A. Hempelmann, Kari L. Koski, CandiceK. Emmons, RobinW. Baird, Kelley Balcomb-Bartok,M. BradleyHanson, MichaelJ. Ford, SamuelK. Wasser" 1 Despartmentof Biology,Center for ConservationBiology, University of Washington,Seattle, Washington, United States of America,2 NationalMarine Fisheries Service, NorthwestFisheries Science Center, Seattle, Washington, United States of America,3soundwatch Boater Education Program, The WhaleMuseum, Friday Harbor, Washington,United States of America,4Cascadia Research Collective, Olympia, Washington, United States of America,5 RentonCity Hall, Renton, Washington, United Statesof America Abstract Managing endangered species often involves evaluating the relative impacts of multiple anthropogenic and ecological pressures. This challenge is particularly formidable for cetaceans, which spend the majority of their time underwater. Noninvasive physiological approaches can be especially informative in this regard. We used a combination of fecal thyroid 93! and glucocorticoid GC! hormone measures to assess two threats influencing the endangered southern resident killer whales SRKW; Orcinus orca! that frequent the inland waters of British Columbia, Canada and Washington, U.S.A. Glucocorticoids increase in response to nutritional and psychological stress, whereas thyroid hormone declines in response to nutritional stress but is unaffected by psychological stress. The inadequate prey hypothesis argues that the killer whales have become prey limited due to reductions of their dominant prey, Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha!. The vessel impact hypothesis argues that high numbers of vessels in close proximity to the whales cause disturbance via psychological stress and/or impaired foraging ability.
    [Show full text]
  • SANDERS-DISSERTATION-2015.Pdf (13.52Mb)
    Disentangling the Coevolutionary Histories of Animal Gut Microbiomes The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Sanders, Jon G. 2015. Disentangling the Coevolutionary Histories of Animal Gut Microbiomes. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:17463127 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Disentangling the coevolutionary histories of animal gut microbiomes A dissertation presented by Jon Gregory Sanders to Te Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology in partial fulfllment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts April, 2015 ㏄ 2015 – Jon G. Sanders Tis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA. Professor Naomi E. Pierce Jon G. Sanders Professor Peter R. Girguis Disentangling the coevolutionary histories of animal gut microbiomes ABSTRACT Animals associate with microbes in complex interactions with profound ftness consequences. Tese interactions play an enormous role in the evolution of both partners, and recent advances in sequencing technology have allowed for unprecedented insight into the diversity and distribution of these associations.
    [Show full text]
  • Evidence of Microplastics in Top Predators: Analysis of Two
    Whale, what do we have here? Evidence of microplastics in top predators: analysis of two populations of Resident killer whale fecal samples. Jenna Harlacher A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Marine Affairs University of Washington 2020 Committee: Ryan Kelly Kim Parsons Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Marine and Environmental Affairs 1 ©Copyright 2020 Jenna Harlacher 2 University of Washington Abstract Whale, what do we have here? Evidence of microplastics in top predators: analysis of two populations of Resident killer whale fecal samples. Jenna Harlacher Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Ryan Kelly School of Marine and Environmental Affairs Environmental microplastics (plastic particles less than 5 mm in size) are a growing ecological issue and are widely documented in marine life. The consequences of microplastic ingestion in top predators are poorly understood but may include physiological and toxicological effects, and the potential for bioaccumulation in apex predators has been suggested. Here, I investigate the presence of microplastics in two populations of North Pacific Resident killer whales and determine if there is a significant difference in the number of microplastics between the populations. This study examined 33 feces samples, 18 from the Southern Resident population, and 15 from the Alaskan Resident population. We implemented multiple contamination-control measures to reduce sample contamination from synthetic clothing and plastic equipment. Microplastics were found in every fecal sample except one, with an average and standard 3 deviation of 82.5 (±173) per sample. I observed no significant difference in the number of microplastics between the two populations (p-value = 0.799).
    [Show full text]
  • Discussion Paper Series
    DISCUSSION PAPER SERIES Discussion Paper No. 1/2020 On Valuing Nature-Based Solutions to Climate Change: A Framework with Application to Elephants and Whales Ralph Chami, International Monetary Fund Thomas Cosimano Connel Fullenkamp, Duke University Fabio Berzaghi, Univ. of Tuscia and Univ. Bourgogne Franche-Comté Sonia Español-Jiménez, Fundación Centro MERI Milton Marcondes, Baleia Jubarte Jose Palazzo, Baleia Jubarte October 2020 Abstract: We develop a framework for natural resource valuation that directly addresses the fundamental collective action problem in environmental protection. Our framework uses the lessons of behavioral economics to create values that individual decision makers find credible and relatable, in addition to stimulating excitement or concern that is essential to prompting action. We then apply this framework to value forest elephants in Africa and great whales that are found off the coasts of Brazil and Chile. The values we estimate for individual members of these species are significant: $1.75 million per forest elephant and an average of $2 million per whale. We discuss how our valuations lead to new designs for environmental preservation and restoration policies. About the authors: RALPH CHAMI is an assistant director in the IMF’s Institute for Capacity Development. CONNEL FULLENKAMP is professor of the practice of economics and director of undergraduate studies in the Duke University Economics Department. THOMAS COSIMANO is professor emeritus at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. FABIO BERZAGHI is a researcher at the Laboratory of Climate and Environment Sciences in Gif-sur-Yvette, France. SONIA ESPAÑOL-JIMÉNEZ is a researcher at Fundación Centro Meri, Chile.
    [Show full text]
  • CATCHING the DRIFT: Impacts of Oceanic Drift Material in the Marshall Islands
    MICRONESIAN JOURNAL OF THE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Vol. 5, nº 1/2 Combined Issue November 2006 CATCHING THE DRIFT: Impacts of Oceanic Drift Material in the Marshall Islands Nancy Vander Velde and Brian Vander Velde Majuro, Marshall Islands The Marshall Islands, situated in the Central Pacific, are far from any major landmass. However, by means of oceanic drift, they are connected with virtually all the Pacific. This paper reviews how the types of drift from various areas have impacted the lives of people on the Marshall Islands. The local language, canoe construction, tools, food, agriculture and other aspects of the culture have been influenced by oceanic drift, with the effects continuing to the present The Marshall Islands, located from between with the help of humans. All other plants likely 160º to 173º east and 4º to 14º north, lie thou- came by traveling the waves. sands kilometers in all directions from any ma- The proportion of plant species which likely jor mass of land. Geologically the 29 atolls and came through oceanic drift is quite high when 5 solitary coral islands1, which constitute this compared with other islands. After Krakatau country, are figured to be quite young, prob- was devastated in 1883, the restoration process ably only coming to a point where they could began a little over a year later with a “few be colonized by land species three- to four- blades of grass.” Although the nearest unaffec- thousand years ago. Furthermore, it was likely ted land was comparatively near, being only only about two-thousand years ago when hu- about 40 km away, early plant recolonization mans were able to colonize the land (NBTRMI consisted of many species which spread via 2000, pp.
    [Show full text]